Review: Unchained Melody

Unchained Melody by Cynthia Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unchained Melody is the first book in the Love Song Standards series. This series grabbed my attention from the get-go: a series of books named after famous romance songs – of course, I was happy to read. In all honesty, can any romance fan deny such a gripping notion? The only downside this that there isn’t a book for every romance song in the world. Of course, such a thing is impossible, but it doesn’t lessen how wonderful the notion is. Thus, I was happy to jump into the first book – now, after finishing, I wish to jump into the rest of the books in the series.

I’m going to be completely honest, though, this book isn’t quite a full four star rating. It was a very enjoyable read, yes, but there were some things that prevented me from loving it quite the way I wanted to. These things, though, are a personal view, and I’m sure some of these things will be overlooked by other people. Moreover, these are things that could very well be different with the other books in the series, hence why I’m still eager to give them a read. Nevertheless, I thought I should point out that this wasn’t quite the full four star rating I gave it – close enough to round up instead of rounding down, but still worth pointing out.

Unchained Melody starts with a bang. We’re instantly thrown into the action, curious as to how things will play out. I always enjoy it when stories start with our characters come together in the manner that these characters did, with a drastic event pulling them together and creating some kind of bond between the two of them. It’s a lot of fun, and sets up so many possibilities for where things could go from there. With some kind of connection already in place, it is wonderful to watch as feelings transform into true love.

The events that follow the big bang at the start of the story were a lot of fun, although I feel as though they weren’t quite as developed as they could have been. A lot of things happened, and the level of depth across the events was somewhat unequal. Some events seemed to be given less attention than they should have been, and it saddened me that we lost the real emotional factor that some of the events could have had. I think, in part, this is because so much happened in such a short story. We focus upon the events happening and overlook some of the emotional backlash.

When we do get the emotional backlash, though, it is a thing of beauty. The end of the book, in particular, hit the spot with the emotional backlash. It was a bit on the predictable side, yes, but it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch things come together. I just wish the entire book had been given the same level of emotional depth. I love action, yes, but it starts to dull when the aftereffects are glossed over somewhat. This is especially true of romance: if anything, the emotion needs to overpower the action. You need to really feel all that is happening, and I didn’t always feel this way. When I was feeling something it was amazing, but these feelings were not as consistent as they could have been.

As a whole, though, I did really enjoy the story. It gripped me from the start, and I found it extremely difficult to put down. It was one of those stories that you needed to finish, you need to see exactly how things played out. Once it had a hold of you, you are completely pulled into the world with there being no chance of escape.

I will say, however, that there were a few things that needed to be caught in editing that pulled you out of the story. It wasn’t happening regularly, but there were a couple that pull you out of the story if such a thing does distract you. I just think people should be aware of this, as I know it does distract some people quite a bit.

Overall, it was a great start to the series and I’m excited to see what comes next.

As a final note, I would like to thank the author for contacting me for a review – it’s certainly left me wanting more.

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